Information resources
K.J.Arrow clearly pointed out that "information has economic cost" [5]. Although the understanding of "resources" in the early resource allocation theory usually refers to material resources such as labor, land and capital. However, contemporary economic theory has given a broader understanding of resources, taking knowledge and information as internal variables and constituting production factors together with tangible resources. The question is what is the real meaning of information resources under the background of studying the effectiveness of information resources allocation.
Many scholars insist on a "broad" understanding of this issue, and believe that information resources not only refer to information content, but also include various elements of information activities, such as information equipment, information personnel, information networks and information systems. However, the author believes that both information personnel and information equipment can only be a kind of "material" input in the process of information production, not information itself, and it is far-fetched to regard all elements of information production and information activities as "information resources". Because of this, we will face an unanswerable question: If these people and devices are not used for information activities, are they still not information resources?
Therefore, the author believes that the understanding of the meaning of information resources cannot be from the perspective of pragmatics. Information resources can only be the information content itself, or the output of information production and information activities, that is, various forms of information products and services.
Information resource allocation
Undoubtedly, the problem of information resource allocation should be included in the category of resource allocation. From the perspective of the whole social economy, the effective allocation of resources is the effective allocation of all resources including information resources. If the information industry (industry) is regarded as a "black box", the allocation of information resources should consider the input (including the quantity, mode and structure of input) and output (including the quantity, quality, form and type of output) of the information industry, then the effective allocation of information resources means the arrangement of input and output of the information industry under the condition of effective allocation of resources in the whole society. However, it is impossible to study the effectiveness of information resource allocation without the operational efficiency of information industry and information enterprises. Therefore, the effectiveness of information industry, information production and information market must be included in the micro-level research scope.